Potent anti-biz group endorses 14 City Council candidates

A progressive political action group with a track record of success in two statehouse primaries in Chicago last March is backing a slate of 14 independent candidates for next year's City Council races.

More than 200 contenders are expected to seek 50 aldermanic seats when nominating petitions are filed Nov. 17, with almost half of incumbents facing stiff competition in the first municipal election since new districts were drawn after the last census.

Between the Chicago Teachers Union, which has backed its first three aldermanic candidates already, and other unions and progressive groups mobilizing for the race, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will have his hands full maintaining a supportive City Council while running his own re-election campaign against two challengers.

Reclaim Chicago, a coalition of union National Nurses United and People's Lobby, a national grass-roots organizing group, said it is endorsing candidates who back its “People and Planet First Platform, a platform that removes big-money and corporate interests from the center of Chicago policymaking and puts the well-being and common good of Chicago residents at the heart of the City Council's agenda.”

“Our message is about the overwhelming power of corporations,” said Maria Fitzsimmons, a volunteer leader of the People's Lobby.

SETTING SIGHTS ON EMANUEL

It's basically an anti-Emanuel agenda, pushing for an elected school board and a $15 hourly minimum wage and against charter schools, corporate subsidies, infrastructure privatization and the use of tax-increment financing.

“Emanuel has millions of dollars to spend as he attempts to protect deeply unpopular aldermen, but Reclaim Chicago has the power of well-trained, committed canvass teams to talk with voters about endorsed candidates,” the group said in a statement.

The group plans to announce its full slate at a rally tomorrow and then send 400 volunteers out to knock on doors for its slate.

Some of its endorsed candidates include:

• Tim Meegan, a high school teacher also backed by the CTU, who is challenging Ald. Deb Mell in the Near North Side's 33rd Ward.

• Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, the city's first openly gay Latino candidate and a former caseworker for Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, who is taking on Ald. Rey Colon in the West Side's 35th Ward.

• Maureen Sullivan, a community activist and owner of a pet care business in Bridgeport, is running for an open seat in the 11th Ward along with a next-generation member of the Daley family.

Ms. Sullivan is up against Patrick Daley Thompson, a real estate lawyer elected commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District in 2012, who is the grandson and nephew of former Mayors Richard J. Daley and Richard M. Daley, respectively. He lives in his grandfather's Bridgeport bungalow.

That race is getting a lot of “buzz,” said Brian Bernardoni, chief lobbyist for the Chicago Association of Realtors, who follows the aldermanic races closely. Mr. Thompson, he said, “is on the short list of people who could be mayor of Chicago someday.”

FIRST EFFORTS

The Reclaim Chicago coalition first surfaced in the March primary and helped Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, withstand a strong challenge from a teachers union-backed candidate, and it helped Will Guzzardi unseat Northwest Side state Rep. Toni Berrios, daughter of Democratic Party powerhouse Joe Berrios, the Cook County assessor.

“Their endorsement was huge in helping me get elected,” said Mr. Guzzardi, who narrowly lost to Ms. Berrios on his first attempt in the 2012 primary and was unopposed in the general election this month. “They sent large groups of seasoned, trained, disciplined canvassers into my campaign, week after week, despite the brutal winter.”

He puts Reclaim Chicago on par with large unions in terms of their ability to put boots on the ground. “Of all the progressive groups in the city, in terms of what they delivered for us, they blew everybody out of the water.”

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